The Ghost of Dick Turpin

The name Dick Turpin conjures images of a dashing highwayman, a romantic rogue of the open road. But the reality of the 18th-century outlaw was far grimmer, and it is this darker, more menacing figure that is said to linger at The Bell Inn in Stilton. For centuries, the inn has been a focal point for tales of Turpin’s ghost, a spectral remnant of a violent life, drawn back to one of his last known hideouts.

According to legend, Turpin sought refuge at The Bell for nine long weeks, using the bustling coaching inn as a place to lie low from the authorities who were hunting him. It was from an upstairs window of this very building that he is said to have made a dramatic escape, leaping onto his faithful mare, Black Bess, and galloping away into the night, just moments ahead of the law. It is this desperate flight, this final taste of freedom, that seems to have tied his spirit to the inn forever.

The most common and unsettling manifestation of Turpin’s ghost is that of a dark, silent figure standing at the foot of a guest’s bed. Woken from a deep sleep, witnesses describe a tall man in the unmistakable attire of an 18th-century highwayman: a long riding coat and a tri-cornered hat. He simply stands and watches, a solid, intimidating presence in the dead of night, before fading away into the shadows. This chilling encounter has been reported in several rooms, but most frequently in the one said to have been Turpin’s own.

The haunting is not confined to this silent vigil. The sounds of Turpin’s presence are just as common. Guests and staff have reported hearing the phantom sound of hoofbeats clattering in the cobbled courtyard, as if Black Bess herself is returning from a nocturnal ride. The faint jingle of a horse’s bridle has also been heard, a ghostly echo of the highwayman’s arrival or departure.

Perhaps the most dramatic event attributed to Turpin’s ghost occurred in 1962. A new landlord, sensing a strange atmosphere in one of the bedrooms, was shocked when a fire suddenly roared to life in the grate, seemingly without any human intervention. When he recounted the tale to the locals, he was informed that this was the very room where Turpin had hidden all those years ago. This incident suggests a more powerful, perhaps more volatile, aspect to the haunting, a ghostly energy capable of interacting with the physical world.

Turpin’s connection to The Bell Inn is a cornerstone of its identity. While the romanticised image of the highwayman has faded over time, the stories of his ghost serve as a potent reminder of the inn’s long and often turbulent history. Whether a product of local folklore or a genuine spectral presence, the ghost of Dick Turpin ensures that guests at The Bell Inn sleep with one eye open, lest they wake to find a dark figure from the past watching over them.